After the win against ARA FC today, Mohammedan SC head coach Yan Law took to social media to announce his resignation. Minutes later, the club’s official handle announced his termination from the club with immediate effect. The 27-year-old has only been in charge at MDSC for a couple of months and his first two matches were the two I-League Qualifiers the Black Panthers won including the match against ARA FC today.
The first signs of trouble emerged when Mohammedan SC officials took objection to Ranjit Bajaj staying at the same Kolkata hotel as the team who are in a bio-secure bubble. Ranjit Bajaj is a former owner of Punjab FC and Yan Law came into prominence under his tutelage. Besides that, Mohammedan SC signed a number of players and support staff from Punjab FC/Minerva Academy combine after appointing Law as coach.
Why is he staying at Hyatt when there are several other hotels in Kolkata?
We should protect the two Bengal teams.
Dipendu Biswas, Technical Director, Mohammedan SC
The MDSC officials indicated to Bengali newspaper Aajkaal that Ranjit Bajaj was unduly trying to influence former Punjab FC players at Mohammedan SC. There were also unsubstantiated rumours of match-fixing.
As a consequence, a number of Punjab FC players were not picked in the starting XI today. Eze Kingsley, Himanshu Jangra, Samuel Shadap, Moinuddin Khan and last game’s matchwinner Munmun Lugun were the players dropped. There were also reports that the general secretary called for Yan Law to be omitted from the team dugout in today’s match, but that did not happen and in fact, Law attended the post-match presser.
Additionally, the general secretary Wasim Akram’s indicated that there were major compatibility issues between the players/staff and the coach to “The Hindu.”
After the first match or rather even before the first match there was a problem with the head coach. He does not listen to his fellow coaches – be it the assistant coach, the goalkeeper coach, the team manager who has been with the team for the last 18 years, or the management. I have requested him many times to not play with certain players and play with others instead.
On the first day we told him to not play certain players in the starting XI and have them on the bench, he went against the management and fielded them in the starting XI. We had a disaster, and it was a very bad performance. Yes, we scored in the last minute, but the entire 90 minutes we were horrible.
Yan Law is not answerable to our fans or the public; he is just answerable to us. But we are answerable to the entire fan base. They kept asking us what was going wrong and why certain players did not play. After the first match, we fixed a Zoom meeting, and I was there along with the club’s officials.
I told him that his attitude of becoming the dictator and boss of the team will not work this time. I added that if he had a problem, he should let me know right away because this was the team I wanted. He was not too happy about it but agreed.
The players, after the first match, told the management that they did not want him and that he only prefers a couple of players. They said he has his own style of play and that they did not understand it as it was very complicated.
Wasim Akram, General Secretary, Mohammedan SC to The Hindu.
Amidst this commotion, Ranjit Bajaj had indicated that he will be taking legal action against Mohammedan SC and its club officials. He also elaborated that his reason for staying in Kolkata was to attend the trials of his Delhi club (Delhi FC) which are currently underway in Kolkata.
By the looks of things, it looks like this dispute is only getting started. More updates to follow.
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